Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
The Decade of Change - Yugoslavia 1980-9 - Coggle Diagram
The Decade of Change - Yugoslavia 1980-9
Ethnic tensions between Serbs and Kosovar Albanians
THE RISE OF NATIONALISM - Retrospect (a protest over the quality of food in the university canteen in Pristina, in March 1981). As protest continued, a state of emergency was declared. The political reaction unleashed the latent nationalism among the Serbs and the Kosovar Albanians.
Members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) were put on trials or imprisoned after 1981. Purges of party officials too place. By 1980s, propaganda was emerging from Belgrade. It had heavy impact on Serbian public opinion, and nationalist sentiment.
Most of the Serbs migrated from Kosovo and the resentment felt by the Serbs who had left Kosovo was used by the nationalists to fuel the fires of discontent against the Kosovars.
By the mid - 1960s the percentage of Serbs had dropped to a little over 20% and by 1981 the number of Serbs had dropped in real terms and they constituted only 15% of the total population of Kosovo.
The emigration of Serbs from poor province, Muslim Albanians were having more children than the Christian Orthodox Serbs. By the early 1990s, Serbs had the highest rate of abortions in the whole of Europe.
The rise of Slobodan Milosevic
In 1986, he was a young Communist who gained a degree in law and then moved into banking. He was a close friend of Ivan Stambolic (Serbian President). In April 1987, Stambolic sent Milosevic to Kosovo to deal with some of the problems. That act marked the rise to power of Milosevic.
Milosevic rode the wave of Serbian nationalism that had manifested itself through a significant document leaked by a Serbian newspaper the previous year. He became the first European head of state to be prosecuted for genocide and war crimes.
In a memorandum of 1984, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) had begun to examine the claim that Serbs living outside of Serbia were subjected to "genocide".
The use of the word "genocide" raised issues that unleashed the tiger of Serb nationalism. The SANU claimed the Serbs outside of Serbia faced extermination at the hands of aggressors.
The communist authorities, including Stambolic condemned the document and warned that its release could bring about the destruction of Yugoslavia.
In April 1987, Milosevic was sent to Kosovo. A meeting took place at Kosovo Polje, the field where the Battle of Kosovo took place in 1389. The meeting saw the presence of Milosevic ostensibly to quell any trouble, and to reassure the Serbs living there of the government's concern.
Milosevic delivered the line which would propel him into history and become a rallying call for Serb nationalists in the years to come: "No one should dare to beat you", in 1987.
In September 1987, in the Central Committee meeting of the Serbian communists, Milosevic turned on the Serbian leader with words "The fatherland is under threat". This appealed to nationalist sentiment in Serbia.
Stambolic resigned in December 1987 and was replaced by Milosevic. Stambolic later commented "When somebody looks at your back for twenty-five years, it is understandable that he gets the desire to put a knife in at some point. Many people warned me but I didn't acknowledge it" (Silber and Little, 1995:45)
Constitutional Reform in Yugoslavia, 1989-91
Milosevic continued to orchestrate large demonstrations in other area of Yugoslavia and made Kosovo a leading issue. Milosevic turned his back on the two provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo, and then on Montenegro. He replaced their leaders with his allies to create a voting bloc in the Yugoslav presidency in order to gain control of Yugoslavia.
The Serbs organized the "meetings of truths" in the summer of 1988 and 1989. In October 1988, the leadership of Vojvodina was ousted by Milosav Solevic.
Rallies were arranged to demonstrate against the Vojvodina leaders and the protesters were given bread and yoghurt. The yoghurt containers were thrown at the parliament building, leading the name "yoghurt revolution". Next the Serbian nationalists turned on Montenegro and in January 1989, Yugoslavia's smallest republic, ripe for unrest, succumbed to the same fate of Vojvodina.
In November 1988, the leaders of Kosovo's Communist Party were dismissed and Belgrade announced that it was going to strip Kosovo of the autonomy.
Jashari and Vllasi were removed from the party committee by Belgrade and it provoked demonstrations by the miners of Trepca. The miners marched to Pristina. The Serbs dismissed these actions as counter-revolutionary moves and the Serbs nationalists organized a massive rally to be held in Belgrade.
Milosevic said: "Kosovo is the pure centre of its history, culture and memory. Every nation has one love that eternally warms its heart. For Serbia it is Kosovo. That is why Kosovo will remain in Serbia" (Silber and Little, 1995: 63).
Thousands of workers had been brought in from nearby companies and state workers in Belgrade had been given the day off. The federal parliament adopted the constitutional changes and Kosovo effectively voted for its own dissolution as an autonomous unit.
The tactics of Serbia frightened the others, particularly Slovenia. In Ljubljana, people protested in support of the Trepca miners in Kosovo. Milosevic pushed ahead with his proposals to strip Kosovo of its autonomy and with the help of Yugoslav army tanks and police deployed across Kosovo, a new constitution was declared.
On 28 March 1989, Serbs turned out to celebrate the creation of a whole Serbian state. By abolishing the autonomy of both Vojvodina and Kosovo, and replacing the leaders in Montenegro with its own followers, Serbia now controlled 4 out of 8 votes in the federal presidency.